We are happy to announce that the latest issue of Art Antiquity and Law is out. The issue features thought-provoking articles on a number of legal issues new and old. This includes Sydney lawyer Elizabeth Pearson’s article ‘Colonial Statutes and Statues: Rethinking the Law on Aboriginal Cultural Heritage in New South Wales’, which considers the protection of Aboriginal cultural heritage in Australia, pointing to a noticeable gap in New South Wales where there is, at present, no single piece of legislation dedicated to the protection of Aboriginal cultural heritage, whether immovable, movable or intangible.

Next, Juan Javier Negri, an Argentinean lawyer, considers the art of José Luis Landet in ‘Landet’s Dilemma: An Essay on the Legal Aspects of the Destruction and Mutilation of Artworks’, asking whether the principles underpinning moral rights, both in Argentina and globally, need to be reconsidered such that the cultural importance of a work becomes the key criteria in assessing derogatory treatment, as opposed to the subjective views of the artist.

Dr Johannes Nathan, Director of the International Art Market Studies Association, offers a proposal for solving the problems of inconsistency and cost in relation to restitution claims for Nazi-spoliated art in ‘Mandatory Title Insurance for Cultural Property: A Solution for Claimants and Owners of Stolen and Looted Art’. Following on from his presentation at a major conference on art restitution in London last year, Nathan proposes a system of compulsory title insurance that could help protect museums, galleries and collectors from restitution claims. Under this arrangement, claims would be referred to an international panel and any compensation would be paid out of an internationally managed fund.

In ‘Hidden Treasure and Forgotten Dreams: the Ownership and Exploitation of Cave Art’, IAL Director Ruth Redmond-Cooper considers the long-standing litigation, on a number of fronts, over the discovery of the Chauvet cave in France in 1994. The 30,000 year-old cave paintings discovered there have been the source of much legal wrangling between the landowner and the state, as well as between the finders and the state, covering all areas of law, from rights in land to human rights to copyright, publication rights and trade mark.

Lastly, the issue of Art Antiquity and Law includes four case notes, covering a number of art law matters: Geoffrey Bennett on the recent treasure discovery in a Shropshire piano, Holly Woodhouse on copyright exceptions for libraries and museums (TUD Darmstadt v. Eugen Ulmer KG) and a recent dispute in the English Court regarding the ownership of a medieval Islamic jar (Jeddi v. Sotheby’s), and Selda Krasniqi on the recent ‘Giotto’ export case (Simonis v. Arts Council England).

For those interested in reading this and other issues of Art Antiquity and Law, subscriptions are available to the journal in hardcopy format here or in digital form through Hein Online. Prices are available through the links. Membership to the IAL also includes subscription to the journal. If your university or local library doesn’t have a subscription to Art Antiquity and Law, tell them to subscribe now through Hein Online. They won’t regret it.

You can obtain for purchase individual articles from the journal up to and including 2017. Anything more recent requires a subscription or IAL membership.

Happy reading.